In a controversy that threatened to overshadow the 30th anniversary of Dallas’ gay Pride parade, some LGBT activists expressed outrage this week after organizers reminded participants about the need for the event to be family-friendly and said nudity and lewd behavior will no longer be tolerated.
Daniel Cates, one opponent to the idea of a family-friendly Pride parade, wrote on his Facebook wall:
“The ‘queer’ is effectively being erased from our Pride celebration in favor of the most polished, heteronormative representation of our community as possible,” Cates wrote. “It should be noted that the rioters at the Stonewall Inn fought to break OUT of the damn closet! Our movement was built of sex positivity and our desire to BE WHO WE ARE! I urge you ALL to openly DEFY the Tavern Guild!”
Of course this story is fucked-up because it takes place in Texas—the order came from the Dallas Police Department, which makes it more of a censorship issue—but I bet that as as LGBT becomes more and more mainstream, these kinds of conversations are going to be happening with more frequency at Pride celebrations in the future.
Just think of how much more effective Martin Luther King Jr. would have been had he been able to march naked through the streets of Birmingham with a flamingo painted on his dick.
This is nothing but outright patriarchal heteronormative fascism.
Well just think how family friendly Malcolm X would have been if he just hadn’t been so angry.
Anything “family friendly” sucks. Organizations with family in the title, family restaurants, family events, the word “family” being used in place of “individuals” or “people” in every advertising or political pitch. “Family” is the real F word. I hate families in general.